The Fiery Heart
by ThisIsAStateOfGrace
Summary: Takes place directly after The Indigo Spell, ends DO NOT READ UNLESS YOU'VE ALREADY READ TIS. T for mild language/violence. Read and review. Hope you like!
1. Chapter 1

A/N: Hi guys! DO NOT READ AHEAD UNLESS YOU'VE READ **THE INDIGO SPELL **(which was, by the way, _absolutely freakin' incredible)_.

This starts directly after TIS ends.

Review and stuff. Hope you like. xx

Disclaimer: **I do not own the Bloodlines series or any characters other than possible future OC's. All rights go to Richelle Mead.**

* * *

I couldn't quite wrap my head around the fact that Zoe was actually here, actually in my room, actually an alchemist. She didn't realize what that new golden tattoo she seemed so proud of actually meant. This was _exactly _what I'd been trying to protect her from. This was the whole reason I was in Palm Springs and trying my hardest to stay out of trouble. Zoe was a huge reason I couldn't seriously consider running off with Marcus and his Merry Men. I'd never wanted this fate for her. I'd never want this fate for anyone, really. It was especially hard to watch her enthusiasm now after all I'd figured out. The alchemists were not the group she'd built up in her head.

And the worst part was, I couldn't even tell her. I couldn't say anything. Even if she _was _my sister, I wasn't sure I could trust her with some of the information I had.

I didn't know what to do, so I simply excused myself to the bathroom, bringing my purse with me. I had an idea in mind. But even if I hadn't had an idea, there was the issue of Hopper, mine and Adrian's miniature demon-dragon. He was, of course, a rock in my purse at the moment but I didn't want to risk him somehow getting out. I knew it was unlikely but it didn't help my paranoia.

Once inside the bathroom I quickly locked the door behind me. I turned the shower on thought I didn't actually plan on showering. I did, however, need background noise so Zoe wouldn't hear me. I could just as easily have texted but I didn't really feel comfortable seeing as she could easily look though my phone. Not that I thought she would, really. I figure better safe than sorry though. I just hoped the water would cover my voice so Zoe couldn't hear, but the person on the other end of the phone still could.

I dialed the number easily and wasn't at all surprised that he picked up on the first thing. "Hey, Sage. Miss me already?

I smiled a little. I'm sure I would've, actually, if Zoe hadn't shown up. "A little. But we actually have a problem." I said, my voice growing serious.

"What's going on?" He said, that protective and concerned note slipping into his voice.

"Visit me tonight." I said before hanging up and not saying anything else. I didn't mean literally visit me of course, and I knew he'd know exactly what I meant. I didn't want to get into it just yet and the safest, most secure place I could think of to tell him everything was in a Spirit Dream.

I figured Zoe would be asleep when I got back into my room anyway, but just in case I went through the formality of a quick shower so she wouldn't question the water running. I slipped on pajamas and much to my relief she was asleep when I entered the dorm room.

Something else occurred to me again, and I grabbed my purse and the aquarium tank near my bed that I was surprised Zoe hadn't asked about, before slipping out of my room as quietly as I could hoping I wouldn't attract the attention of any security, it would've been difficult to explain why I was carrying an aquarium through the girls dorm hallways at nearly one in the morning.

I would've used an invisibility charm to make this easier but didn't want to risk waking Zoe and having her see me chanting Latin curses and suddenly disappearing. I might have been good at explaining things away, but even I couldn't get out of that situation.

I didn't bother knocking on Jill and Angeline's door, instead pulling out the spare key I kept in my bag and praying they'd be awake as I opened the door as slowly and quietly as I could manage. Luckily, I didn't have to worry. They were awake. The problem was that that included Angeline who I really didn't want involved in any of this. I was hesitant even letting Eddie get involved and even having Adrian (and by default, Jill) dragged into my magic wasn't something that I enjoyed. But at the moment I didn't have much of a choice.

"What's going on? You've got Adrian worried." Jill said by way of greeting.

"I can't really explain now, you'll know later I'm sure." I said, hoping she'd get the hint.

"Look I don't care if Angeline's here, I want to know what's going on."

"I promise I'll tell you later, you'll hear it before that through the bond I'm sure. And I know I don't really have any right to come barging in here and asking for things, but I have a favor to ask you, please, Jill." I said, trying to avoid this conversation until later. It wasn't a secret per say that Zoe was here, I was just not up for talking about it with them.

In reality, I _did _kind of have the right to ask a favor, as I'd certainly done plenty for Jill and Angeline alike. But I knew that wouldn't really help my case.

She sighed, relenting. "Sure, anything. What do you need?"

"I know it's a really weird thing to ask, but can you take care of Hopper until I can get him to Adrian? You don't have to do anything, he can stay in crystal form for now, I just can't have him in my room."

"Of course." She said, knowing better than to ask anything else for now.

Angeline who'd been watching this display (I was surprised she hadn't chimed in) finally spoke up. "What the hell is Hopper?" She asked, wary.

"I'm sorry, Angeline, I really can't explain right now I just need to get back to my room. Zoe's here, I don't want her noticing I'm gone." So much for not telling them anything until later.

"Wait, Zoe? Your sister, Zoe? She's not an alchemist, though." Jill said, confused. For a moment, I was too, not ever remembering mentioning Zoe to her. It dawned on me that I'd mentioned her to Adrian before though. I don't think I'd ever get over the weirdness of Jill knowing all this.

"Well she is now." I snapped, showing more emotion than I'm intended. I sounded a mix of the bitter anger I felt towards the alchemists and just downright sad. Zoe didn't deserve this life, she should be free to be normal.

"Oh, Sydney. Are you okay?" Jill said, sympathy and worry written on her face. Even Angeline, who didn't really know what was happening looked worried.

"I'm fine, don't worry."

Jill looked like she wanted to say more but bit her tongue, smartly so. If she'd gone on she probably would've started venting Adrian's worries.

"I'm going to go to bed, Adrian's probably waiting." I said. That _really _confused Angeline.

"What? I thought Zoe was in your room, what the hell is Adrian doing in there?"

I blushed and stammered out, "He's not. I meant, um. I'm sorry, I really can't explain all of this right now. Goodnight, you'll meet Zoe tomorrow." I said, and without leaving them time to ask or say anything else, I left the room, leaving Hopper in his aquarium on the small table by their door.

I got back into my room, thankfully uninterrupted and lay down. I was really hoping I was tired enough to sleep, but after twenty minutes of laying there I realized that wasn't the case. I didn't really want to keep Adrian waiting with the way I'd most likely scared him during our short phone call, so against my better judgement I performed a quick, wordless sleeping spell. I remember the feeling of the magic starting to flow through me, then everything went black.

* * *

As I suspected, it didn't take Adrian more than five minutes, maximum, before he reached me.

We were standing in his bedroom and I was wearing my pajamas, he was wearing what he'd worn on our outing today. I felt bad, I suspected he'd been trying to reach my since I called.

"You have no idea how freaked out I've been. Sydney, what's going on?" Him calling me Sydney meant he was most definitely serious. Wanting to reassure him, I sat down next to him on the edge of his bed and leaned into his shoulder, his arm wrapped around me immediately.

And then I recounted everything, telling him about Zoe being here, and also just about Zoe in general. About how sweet she was and how mad she'd been when I took this assignment over her and stories from when we were growing up and things like that. He listened the whole time. I also mentioned that he would need to come pick up Hopper. We talked about how we'd all have to be careful now. We hadn't come to a good conclusion on what we'd do about the magic and things like that. We didn't talk about what we'd do about _us_ now. We'd already known we'd hide our relationship, but we'd have to be even more cautious now. Somehow we ended up laying down on his bed facing each other with his arms pulling me to his chest.

When I was through with my rambling, we stayed there in silence for a few minutes before I told him what had been bothering me the most about this. "Adrian, I failed her. I failed Zoe. I was supposed to protect her."

"Sydney." When I didn't look up at him, he repeated my name. I didn't look, again, leaving my head against his chest.

"Sydney, look at me." He said, trying once more. I glanced up a little and he pulled up my chin so we were face-to-face. Only then did I realize I was crying. Tears slid down my cheeks and, embarrassed, I tried to reach up and wipe them away but Adrian grabbed my hand before I could, holding it tight. He took the hand he'd been using to hold my face close to his and used his thumb to gently wipe away my tears.

"Sage, you haven't let anyone down. You have to realize, you can't control Zoe's decisions and you certainly can't control the alchemists. There's nothing you could've done." He said gently.

"I could have done something," I protested, "I should've not been so stupid. I freaked out at Stanton then demanded more protection to cover my tracks, I'm the reason they sent her."

"They could have sent anyone, you had no way of knowing. You didn't know they'd actually send another alchemist. This is _not _your fault." Rather than argue over this I just let him hold me. My tears stopped after a while and we continued to sit in a long, comfortable silence.

"You have to meet her tomorrow. I want her to meet you. If there's anyone who can show an alchemist that vampires aren't that bad, it's you." He laughed at that.

"Guess I did a pretty good job with you, didn't I?" He smirked.

I responded to that by pressing my lips to his and soon came that fire and passion I'd known only from him. This kiss was different, they always were. That's one of the things I loved, every kiss between us was powerful and new and even better than the last.

I kissed him urgently and moved so I was on top of him. He moved down and began kissing my neck the way I loved and I let out a small moan of pleasure. His hands moved to my waist and pulled me as close as he could. Once again he teased me, moving his hands under my shirt and moving slowly up my sides.

I shivered as he-

The dream stopped there, very suddenly. I was left confused and dazed as I realized I was back in my own bed. An alarm was going off and the room was smokey and hazy. I began to cough and as I woke up to the world around me, it registered that it was not my alarm clock, but the fire alarm. Zoe was shaking me and when she realized I was awake she started shouting that we needed to go, we needed to get out. Which was true, but being me I had to do something first.

Throwing some things in my purse, I grabbed Zoe's hand and ran out the door. I didn't know where the fire was coming from and it didn't appear that it was originating from anywhere in our room but it couldn't have been far from the way the smoke had filled our dorm.

I got to Jill and Angeline's dorm just as the door opened. Jill held up the rock I knew to be Hopper to me as we followed the crowd out the door. I took it from her hand and slipped it into my purse, which also contained all my alchemist and magic things. I figured leaving them in the dorm might not have been the best idea; as they'd either get scorched or possibly discovered when the cause of the fire was investigated.

We ended up standing in the field behind our dorm. No one seemed to know quite what was going on. It didn't surprise me when Eddie showed up, Neil following closely behind him. I wasn't sure if they'd made all the other dorms evacuate as well or if they'd just left because they wanted to make sure Jill was okay, but I did know Eddie would've been here no matter what.

I was panicked and still not entirely "here" after having been woken so suddenly from Adrian's Spirit dream, so I barely registered Eddie when he asked me what was going on.

"I- I don't know." I stuttered, looking around the woods for anything suspicious.

I didn't see anything for a few moments so I looked away. I turned back to face the dorm and glanced up at the tree near Julia and Kristen's window, wondering if it had caught on fire. It hadn't, but there was something even worse. An icy feeling ran over me.

I saw a shadow of a person in that tree.

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A/N: DUN. DUN. DUNNNNN.

Hope you liked! Please review. xx


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: Two chapters in a day, I know, I'm on fireeee, right? ;D

Thank-you for all the kind reviews! And to "Guest" who wanted me to reply to your comment, I don't want to spoil it for you ;D

Other stuff:

-There's a random poll up on my page. Go for it.

-**I really want to start a Bloodlines message RP, starting after TIS. Only rule, and I know this sucks for you, I'd like to play Sydney. XD Message me if interested.**

**-I'd really like some feedback on this.** Are the characters OOC or am I doing an okay job? :)

Disclaimer: I do not own Bloodlines or any of its characters, all rights to Richelle Mead.

* * *

Soon after our dorm matron Mrs. Weathers got us all to calm down and listen to her. She explained that we all needed to clear this area, but we couldn't go back to the dorm. They really didn't seem to have a logical place to put all of us, so I assumed that meant we were to go to other dorms.

However, I'd stupidly freaked out a little when I'd seen that shadowy figure in the tree. And Eddie, observant as always, had followed my gaze and seen the same shadow I did. It disappeared suddenly leaving us both confused and me shaken. Needless to say Eddie's guardian instincts wouldn't allow us to stay around campus, at least for now, with some shadowy figure lurking around that may or may not have helped in starting this fire.

I was scared, this hit too close to what had happened with Alicia. I couldn't help but think that the figure I'd seen could be her, after all she had to be out for vengeance after Adrian and I had nearly caused her death in a fire I'd accidentally set on Ms. Terwilliger's house during a magical battle we'd unfortunately ended up in. I'd actually thought at the time that I had killed her, but I didn't. Half of me was relieved not to be responsible for anyone's death, and the other half was terrified that she was still out there somewhere.

In the end, the decision was made to go to Adrian's apartment. Since the sad demise of my car Latte, we didn't have any means of driving ourselves so I called him giving him as much detail as I could without freaking him out. I told him there'd been a fire that we didn't know the cause of and that they were clearing our dorm rooms so they could get authorities in to investigate after they'd made sure the fire was completely out and that Eddie didn't feel safe staying here. I didn't mention the shadowy figure, I didn't want to worry him more than I had to just now.

He didn't take long and in a matter of minutes he pulled up in the Ivashkinator, Adrian's amazing yellow Mustang I'd had the pleasure of naming. Naming cars was about the only creative thing I seemed to be good at. I wasn't an artistic person.

Then I remembered something that I should have realized sooner.

I'd actually forgotten in the chaos that this was the first time Zoe had been around the vampires and I glanced at her (I'd also just noticed how close she was standing to me- our shoulders were nearly touching) her eyes were wide and scared, her posture tense. I'd gotten so used to them and hadn't really been around a new alchemist in so long, it was so odd to think that someone could be so afraid of someone like Jill, or Eddie or... Adrian. I felt the safest I'd ever felt when I was around him, even around Eddie, Jill and Angeline I felt perfectly safe. The new guardian, Neil, didn't bother me either. They were just people to me.

But to Zoe, these were the monsters she'd been taught to fear more than anything in the world.

I don't know why but that made me angry. Not at her, it wasn't her fault. But at the Alchemists for drilling it into everyone's head that the Moroi and dhampirs were so evil and wrong and unnatural. Nonetheless, I grabbed Zoe's hand and squeezed it tight, trying to understand her fear and be supportive. She tried to give me a smile in return but it wasn't very convincing.

The car wasn't actually meant for six people (there were only four seats). And while this was a problem- especially to me, I loved this car, we didn't have much of a choice here. It ended up Adrian driving, Zoe and I smushed into the passenger seat and Eddie, Jill, Angeline and Neil shoved into the back.

Everyone sat quietly the entire time, even Adrian had the sense to keep his mouth shut. I think having Neil and Zoe around was making things awkward for all of us, no one new had joined our little "group" since Angeline, and we hadn't thought we'd be getting anyone else, it'd been a complete surprise. We especially didn't think we been getting an alchemist. Especially a brand new alchemist that happened to be my sister.

She held my hand the whole time, a little too tightly. When you were training to be an alchemist and not out in the field, it didn't seem like it would be all that hard to be around Moroi and dhampirs. Sure, they were scary and evil in your mind, but you never imagined you would be as scared as you were when you were actually around vampires, at least at first. As irrational as I knew Zoe's fears were, I did understand them.

The drive to Adrian's apartment seemed a lot longer than it usually did in the silence that surrounded us. When we got there and Adrian parked the car we all just kind of sat there for a moment before getting out. We all walked into Adrian's apartment and as he turned the lights on, I looked at him and then burst out laughing.

"What?" He asked, confused at my sudden laughter but he smirked nonetheless.

"We match." I said, simply, pointing to his shirt. We were both wearing our Alpha Yam Ergo shirts. I hadn't actually realized that I'd put it on, I'd grabbed the first shirt in my drawer on my way into the bathroom because I was panicking about Zoe and needed space.

He laughed with me, but we both quieted as everyone else entered his apartment. Zoe quickly hurried to my side and a pang of annoyance hit me. Why would they have sent an untrained alchemist who was afraid of everything if I was legitimately concerned we needed backup? I wasn't, of course, but it was odd of them to send Zoe. She wasn't ready. And having a shadow follow me around wouldn't really be helpful for anyone.

I shoved those thoughts aside. Zoe was my sister, I should have been happy she was here. In fact I _was _happy she was here, just not under these circumstances.

It was eventually decided Zoe and I would sleep on Adrian's pull out couch, and the others would make beds on the floor. Adrian offered his bedroom, but I insisted her could keep his own room. After all we had made him come pick us up at one o'clock in the morning, the least we could do was not make him sleep on the floor.

* * *

Everyone fell asleep quickly, even Zoe surprisingly. I would've thought she'd have more trouble sleeping around everyone, but she seemed okay, probably because I was with her.

Before I could really consider the consequences, I got up and glanced around, making sure everyone was asleep, then walked through the little apartment to Adrian's bedroom door. I opened the door quietly and peered in. He was awake which didn't really surprise me.

"Hey, what are you doing up?" He questioned softly as I crossed the room and sat on the edge of the bed.

"I could ask you the same." I said.

"Waiting for you to go to sleep," He said smirking. It dawned on me that I could have just gone to sleep and he would have visited me in a Spirit dream. It probably would've been easier that way, "Come lay down."

I complied, laying on my side facing him. He wrapped an arm lazily around my waist and pulled me closer. "We've got to be careful, Adrian. Everyone's just in the other room."

"Hey, you're the one who came in my bedroom trying to seduce me." He said, tugging his blanket over me.

I glared at him jokingly. "I am _not _trying to seduce you."

"Sure you're not, Miss 'I'm a Quick Study'." He said, pressing his lips to my forehead. I laughed again and he laughed with me this time. I really hoped that nickname wouldn't catch on. I'd rather Sage than that.

We lay there for a while in blissful silence and my exhaustion soon began to take over. It occurred to me that I should go back to the couch and Zoe, but instead I fell asleep against him, listening to his steady heartbeat.

* * *

A/N: Ohhh Sydrian bed time. Let's see how that goes in the morning. ;)

There WILL be more of an intense plot coming, this won't just be fluff. This is just setting everything up. :)

Sorry this chapter is so short!

Review and stuff. xx


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